Over the years, I have had the wonderful fortune of teaching, supervising, mentoring and collaborating with an outstanding group of smart, talented psychology undergraduate and graduate students, interns and postdoctoral fellows. One of the great joys in my life is interacting with trainees at Yale, Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital, and through the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students. These students have been some of my best teachers and many have become trusted colleagues and dear friends. Here's a SHOUT OUT to all of the prior, current and future trainees with whom I will connect and forge mutually helpful and meaningful relationships.
Unfortunately, on rare occasions, I've also encountered trainees with problems of professional competence (PPC), namely those whose knowledge, skills and attitudes fall below the developmentally expected benchmarks. These trainees prompt different demands of time, energy and emotional investment for trainers. Although psychologists are experts in managing conflict, negotiating and solving interpersonal problems, we often struggle to use these same strategies when working with trainees with PPC. The situation is further complicated by the fact that trainees with PPC often feel helpless, afraid, angry, stressed and reluctant to trust trainers and peers.
For a decade, I have led and participated in a Working Group on Trainees with Competence Problems. Members of this prolific workgroup have worked to understand problematic trainees, appreciate their impact on peers and training programs, and offer guidance for trainers to effectively recognize, assess and intervene with PPC.
Our key findings and recommendations call for us to:
- Adopt an ecological framework that examines the training context in its entirety so we can move away from an individualistic or dyadic understanding of competence problems and capture the complex contexts in which they are embedded (Forrest, Shen-Miller, & Elman, 2008).
- Follow guidance about preventing and managing trainees with PPC. This calls for us to define the construct, prepare the system, teach self-assessment, implement remediation plans, attend to diversity in conceptualizations and action plans, communicate across all levels of the system, attend to trainee confidentiality, and be informed about ethical, regulatory and legal factors (Kaslow et al., 2007; Gilfoyle, 2008; Shen-Miller, Forrest, & Elman, 2009).
- Attend to conceptualizations for understanding diversity demographics since they intersect with and influence how trainers handle PPC (Shen-Miller et al., 2009: Shen-Miller, Forrest, & Burt, 2012).
- Ensure that trainers are competent in having difficult conversations with trainees with PPCs, since early interventions can help avoid more serious issues in the future (Jacobs et al., 2011).
- Recognize that trainer behaviors help as well as hinder effective management of PPC and that training program intentionality and preparedness to address PPC are critical to good outcomes (Forrest et al., 2013).
- Be mindful that many trainees are aware of a peer with competence problems, yet often lack confidence that trainers or peers will take action. Trainees also want more guidance from trainers (Shen-Miller et al., 2011).
- Create communitarian training cultures to help prepare all parties for lifelong competence in which trainers and trainees learn the importance of being surrounded by strong constellations of colleagues who give them regular feedback about their competence. All of us should learn about and use tools for professionally addressing PPC throughout our careers (Johnson, Barnett, Elman, Forrest, Schwartz-Mette, & Kaslow, in press).
While trainee competence problems can be a significant challenge, they can be successfully overcome. Trainees deserve our very best, including proactive intervention when there is a problem. As psychologists, we have expertise in assisting others in changing their maladaptive behaviors and attitudes. The positive outcome of effective interventions will give us all joy for years to come. I urge trainers and trainees alike to construct and maintain competent communities, to ensure our own competence, protect our multiple publics, and safeguard the future of the discipline and the profession.
For more information on this topic, see the Monitor article on page 54 and Competency Initiatives in Professional Psychology.
For references in this article, please go to "Will that student be able to practice?".
